ARTICLES ABOUT DRINKING WATER BY DATE - PAGE 4

QUINCY, PA. - Dawn Moats' drinking water passes through a water filtration system, water softener, ultraviolet light and a filter on the refrigerator before the first drop splashes into a glass. Yet, last fall, she was told that her well water could kill her someday. "I know it's been a concern in this area for bacteria, but we thought with all the precautions we had taken we were safe. ... I was wrong," she said. Moats' home on Mentzer Gap Road was one of 26 in Quincy Township that tested positive for trichloroethylene contamination during Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection testing in October 2006.

Two years ago when Sharpsburg resident Dave Lemarie learned that male fish containing eggs had been discovered in the Potomac River basin, he and his wife stopped drinking tap water. Lemarie, a biologist who is not studying the river - reasoned that if the water did that to the fish, it could not be good for people. Since 2002 there have been several fish kills and a high percentage of tested smallmouth bass found to be intersex - exhibiting characteristics of the opposite sex, said Vicki Blazer, a fish pathologist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Leetown Science Center in Kearneysville, W.Va.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - Shepherdstown officials believe the large water leak in the town's water system is somewhere on the west campus of Shepherd University, and crews were digging in the area Monday in an attempt to find it, said Town Recorder Cindy Cook. When a section of the water system on the west campus was shut down, the town's two water tanks on W.Va. 45 began to fill up, leading town officials to believe the leak was in that area, Cook said. The water level in the tanks was about 24 feet on Sunday, but on Monday afternoon, the level had risen to about 60 feet, Cook said.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA. The effort to find a large leak in Shepherdstown's water system was turning into a race against time Sunday. The challenge? Find the leak before the town runs out of water. Town officials were worried about the possibility of the undetected leak, combined with the town's water usage, draining all the water out of the town's two 500,000-gallon storage tanks along W.Va. 45 west of town, said Town Recorder Cindy Cook. Not only would that leave everyone without water, but it would make it very difficult to find the leak, Cook said.

trishr@herald-mail.com BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - The 16th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting will be Saturday from 2:30 to 9 p.m. at Coolfont Resort in Berkeley Springs. Jill Klein Rone, the event producer for Travel Berkeley Springs, said more than 100 waters from 24 states and 13 countries, including Macedonia, will be tasted this year. The categories of municipal water, purified drinking water, bottled noncarbonated water and bottled sparkling water will be chosen by 12 media judges and the best packaging design is chosen by the public, she said.

trishr@herald-mail.com BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - The Morgan County Rural Water Committee was honored Thursday for its efforts to protect local drinking water sources. Rick Rogers, chief of the Drinking Water Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Philadelphia office, presented a source water protection award to local resident Abby Chapple at the Morgan County Commission office on Fairfax Street. Chapple said she has been a SWAP (Source Water Area Protection)

Week of Sept. 11, 1955 Despite the fact several weeks have elapsed since the heavy rains, the county roads department is still hard at work repairing the washouts and other damage the downpours caused to the more than 250 miles of dirt roads in the county. Superintendent E. Eugene Geary said yesterday that about 85 percent of his working force has been busy on the repair work and much work remains to be done. Of interest to Hagerstown residents who obtain drinking water from the Potomac River, is word from Cumberland that a $2,000,000 sewage treatment plant there is over 20 percent completed.

Portions of Washington County have high numbers of contaminated wells, but growth hasn't played much of a part in that, an official says. Nor have new homes in rural areas led to groundwater levels dropping, said Ted Gordon, the Washington County Health Department's director of environmental health. But the Health Department still encourages well users to hook up to public water systems when available. Gordon said most well contamination, which typically includes bacteria, including fecal bacteria, is a result of poor maintenance of the wells by property owners.

Just so we're all on the same page and we have our information straight, here is the deal as I understand it: Police Chief Arthur Smith had a choice between Hagerstown and Afghanistan - and he chose Afghanistan. Ouch, talk about rejection. I mean, I know the H-town isn't always on the cutting edge of hipness and intellectualism, but come on. Afghanistan? What, was Bolivia booked? When you find yourself posing on the front page of the local newspaper with a nomadic tribesman and camel, there have to be some other venues you've missed.